aug 6, 1945 - US drops atomic bombs on Japan

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The Japanese city of Hiroshima was utterly devastated by the first US atomic bomb dropped on August 6, 1945. A second atomic bomb struck the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. More than 4 square miles of Hiroshima were obliterated. Casualties totaled at least 137,000 out of a population of 343,000: 78,150 were found dead, others died later. By 1995, the estimated death toll, which included individuals who had died from radiation-related diseases since the war, had climbed to about 192,000. More than 95% of those killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki were civilians.

After determining that the Japanese would fight to the death, US President Harry Truman decided to use the atomic bombs to convince the Japanese to surrender.

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